CU Boulder University Libraries invites you to Mapping Home / Collecting Truths: Works by Indigenous and International Artists at the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library, in Benson Earth Sciences. The exhibition is free and open to the public during regular library hours.

Melanie Yazzie (CU Boulder Department of Art & Art History) organized the production of the original artworks created by 35 indigenous and international artists. Prof. Yazzie invited these artists to express ideas of homeland and its intersection with the environment, climate, or other influences. She has permanently gifted the works to the Earth Sciences & Map Library. 

The exhibit is part of a campus-wide program, Documenting Change: Our Climate (Past, Present, Future). This program presents how strategies of visualization and observation are shared by artistic and scientific disciplines to record, study, and communicate climate change. To that end, the exhibition also includes original scholarly works by CU students from various academic departments. These works respond to the art by showcasing the types of scientific research and exploration taking place on campus in regards to climate change and its effects on indigenous populations. Conveyed in imaginative and aesthetically compelling ways, their research data communicates their conclusions to a broad audience. Materials from the map collection and from CU Libraries Special Collections, Archives & Preservation Department add another layer of geographical and historical richness to the contemporary art and science. 

Curator: Naomi Heiser, Map Library. Guidance provided by Joe Bryan, Geography Department. Historical materials on loan from CU Libraries Special Collections, Archives and Preservation Department, curated by Kalyani Fernando.

For more information, please contact Naomi Heiser at maplib@colorado.edu or 303-492-4966.